Dance as a Spiritual Practice
*Maple*
Essence of this Seed:
*Saturday Morning Conscious Dance
*Somatic Expression and Healing
*SoulCollage & Conscious Dance Experience Workshops
*Encouragement to Dance with Your Spiritual-self!
Winter and Spring Dates for
Saturday Morning Conscious Dance,
January 14
February 11
March 4
April 8
9:45 AM-11:30 AM
(Pacific Time)
Join us (at any time) for a morning of music
that inspires you
to dance from the inside out!
At 9:45am we begin our time together with calm and melodic music, when you are invited to join me in gentle Qi Gong exercises and begin our embodiment practice.
At 10am, l lead us in a simple song chant which you can listen to or sing along with, the lyrics are in written in chat.
Then we begin an hour long moving meditation and dance journey curated by DJ Scott, through a wave of songs, instrumentals, and a variety of sounds for inspiration.
In closing, I recite a poem and open up circle time for our community to share what came up for us in the dance, and what is on our hearts, with a group of compassionate listeners.
We look forward to sharing this experience with you!
Dance offerings around Santa Cruz County:
Tannery World Dance Center
1010 River St, Studio A,
Santa Cruz, CA
9am-11:00am PT
Dance Medicine Circle
Tuesday Evenings 7-9pm PT
Each evening is a unique theme for a dance journey
for details check out the Dance as a Spiritual Practice
Facebook group
(the previous links are for Facebook pages)
To find other dances, check out these Facebook groups:
Santa Cruz Dance and Movement Community
https://www.danielmollner.com/dances
I love this quote...
“We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.”
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Consider this: The whole world is full of spiritual beings having a physical experience!
The seed of Dance as a Spiritual Practice invites us to embody our Spiritual-selves as we dance around in our physical bodies. We are dancing with the Divine from the inside out!
On body Image:
We are embodied spirits, yet often times people of our culture are uncomfortable in these bodies and their various shapes and sizes because we compare ourselves to the limited modern fashion standards of beauty. These standards are typically defined by a flawless youthfulness that makes people of all genders disparage getting older.
It is a dysfunction of our culture that has us doubting our unique beauty and viability based on an unrealistic and unnecessary notion of physical perfection.
Individually and collectively we can make an intentional effort to shed that harsh judgement. One way to do this is through movement that allows the body to express itself as uniquely authentic as it is. Conscious Dance strives toward the ideal of non-judgment.
Conscious Dance Described:
One way to describe a conscious dance practice is that a DJ crafts a set of music designed to take the dancers on a musical, physical, and if you are inclined, emotional and spiritual journey. Many dance venues are decorated using cloths, flowers, stones, candles, and other artifacts with ambient care to create a sanctuary space.
When a dancer allows themself to really get into the music, into the environment, into the altar, into each other and/or into themselves, one can transcend from the mundane into the sacred. The Conscious Dance container strives to be a safe space for such exploration.
Conscious Dance is a journey where communication is nonverbal; we communicate beautifully through movement, gesturing, body language, and eye contact. This communication is one of emoting, or sending feelings and sentiments in modalities other than words. It's an opportunity to get out of our chatter and into our more sensitive selves, developing communication skills to an even greater expression!
This seed invites us to shed cultural judgments, body shaming, and harsh expectations of beauty. Let us step into a loving space, a carefully crafted and held container, where we can learn how our spirits want to be embodied; where we can be our true beautiful selves.
So...
Move as the Spirit say move!
Move as the Music say move!
Move as the Body sez move!
References and Further Explorations:
*Five Rhythms
*Soul Motion
*Moveintuit: Brynne Flidais
http://www.moveintuit.com/
* Moth Bangarra Dance Thearte
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvkUBfIq50I
* Maple Leaf Rag!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fagH03fxY7c